Update: GeoSweep under Atlantic Lottery Corp's Scrutiny

The latest news from the Canadian Atlantic Lottery Corporation are that it has decided to reassess its total capital investment of around Cdn$3.85 million on an equity stake in the British internet gaming company Roboreus and its Geosweep product, which functions like a lottery, but instead of wagering on a lottery ticket number, it lets the punters buy their favorite "geo" - a specific point in the organizing country.

In case of Atlantic Canada, 2.3 million geos were arranged for wagering at a cost of around Cdn$7.50 for a month. And even though the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) has declined to reveal sales on the product, prognosis can hardly be encouraging if one has in mind that reports from the UK earlier this year were that the program yielded a daily income of only GBP100.

In Canada, some of the Atlantic provinces showed a lot of interest in the project back in July 2012, with Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick each putting up Cdn$4 million on it, while Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador rejected it.

Back then, PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheridan expressed belief that the project may be good for the Atlantic Lottery as it needs new products to maintain revenues while its income drops from older-type lottery offerings. On the occasion, he also said the GeoSweep project could pay for itself in three years.

However, things seem different from today's perspective, apparently, with Finance Minister of New Brunswick, Blaine Higgs saying the investment is being re-evaluated as the Government is no longer sure the project is viable for ALC.